THE CAMBRIDGE MEDIEVAL HISTORY I 311

Early Christian Art: Ivories

21.4. Early Christian Art: Ivories

We have in our English museums a remarkably fine collection of Early Christian Ivories. At South Kensington there is a leaf of a famous diptych, inscribed Symmachorum, the companion of which in Paris is inscribed Nicomachorum; it is not itself Christian, but it can be associated with other works which are, and it can be accurately dated as of the end of the fourth century. It is of extraordinary beauty both of design and workmanship, and is the most perfect existing example of marriage diptychs. It was made on the occasion of the marriage of Nicomachus Flavianus with the daughter of Quintus Aurelius Symmachus, consul in A.D. 391, or another marriage between the same families in 401.

Now there is an ivory in the Trivulzio Collection at Milan, sculptured with a representation of the Holy Sepulchre and watching soldiers, on which some of the details are identical with the one just spoken of — and a third diptych of the same class, having exactly similar details, and inscribed with the name of Rufinus Probianus is now at Berlin. They are all so much alike in style that it would seem that they must come from one shop and may even be the work of the same hand.

At the British Museum there are some pieces which formed the sides of a casket which are sculptured with scenes from the Passion. Some of the subjects have so much in common with the other ivories just discussed that they may be assigned to the same school. On these panels are represented Pilate washing his hands, St Peter's Denial, Christ bearing the Cross, the Crucifixion, Judas hanged, the Women at the Sepulchre, the incredulity of St Thomas. Pilate washing his hands is a fine classical composition which may be compared with the same subject on the Brescia coffer, which also has, the Denial of St Peter, and the Death of Judas. This coffer is acknowledged to be early fourth-century work, which is further confirmed by the fact that on the sarcophagus of Junius Bassus the subject of Pilate washing his hands is treated in a similar manner. The Brescia coffer has often been called the most beautiful of Christian Ivories.

It has been pointed out that the cycle of subjects from the Passion represented upon it stops before the Crucifixion, and it has been held that this omission was a matter of principle, but the London series, and other still earlier treatments of the Crucifixion which are now known, contradict this view. The Holy Sepulchre as it appears on the British Museum fragments is identical with that on the Trivulzio tablet before mentioned, and the curious costume of the watching soldiers is alike in both. In both the doors of the tomb are burst open, and in both, on the panels of the doors, is carved the raising of Lazarus. These British Museum panels have been assigned by the Museum authorities to the fifth century, but there can be little doubt that they should be classed with the other fourth century works they so closely resemble. They are distinctly earlier in style than the carved doors of Santa Sabina in Rome which are usually dated about 425.

There are other points which go to shew that these Ivories were wrought in Rome, although possibly by a school of Eastern ivory-carvers. A domed building practically identical with the upper part of the Holy Sepulchre on the British Museum Ivory is found on a fourth-century Roman sarcophagus now in the Laleran. While the Trivulzio tablet has the symbols of the four evangelists appearing in the sky, which are remarkably similar to the same symbols in the apse mosaic of Santa Pudentiana, wrought about 390, these symbols hardly appear in Byzantine work, but they do in Egyptian wall-paintings. Another casket at the Museum which is carved with the stories of St Peter and St Paul has much in common with the one last described. Moses striking the Rock seems at first an intrusion amongst these subjects, but it was in fact a favourite Early Christian type of the Gospel, and is frequently found in the catacombs; Christ is the Rock, St Peter is the Moses of the New Law, and the water is that of Baptism. In some cases, indeed, the name of Peter is written over what appears to be the figure of Moses.

This treatment occurs again engraved on the glass vessel from Cologne in the Museum. At South Kensington are sides of a casket sculptured with scenes from the Life of Christ, and known as the Werdan casket. The subjects comprise the Annunciation, the Angel appearing to Joseph, the Visitation, the Presentation of the Virgin, the three Shepherds, the Nativity, the Magi, men going out of Jerusalem toward the Jordan, the axe laid to the root of the tree, the Baptism. The Annunciation is represented after a form which appears iu the Apocryphal Gospel of St Matthew, according to which the Virgin was drawing water at a fountain when the angel appeared. The Ox and Ass of the Nativity come from the same source, as also docs the Presentation in the Temple. On this casket Christ at the Baptism is represented as small and youthful as compared to the Baptist, Mr Cecil Terrlias founded on this the conjecture that an account different from that in the Gospels was followed, but it may be suggested that it came about through some stylistic formula like that of the old Egyptian monuments, whereby some persons might be bigger than others. It is true that we should expect the Christ to be the dominating figure, but may it not in this instance be the Baptist's office which is magnified?

A famous ivory book-cover at Milan has subjects which resemble those of the Werdan casket so closely that they must have come from the same shop. Except for slight changes called for by the different spaces to be filled, the Nativity, the Wise Men, the Shepherds, and the Annunciation, the Presentation of the Virgin, and the Baptism, are all practically identical. There is also at the Bodleian an Ivory of the same school which contains a Baptism.

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